I had previously been to Café Trevi with friends, and thought it was a nice, quaint restaurant located on Lygon Street where service was delivered with a smile. But it was only the second time I went, alone and without friends, that I had the mental attention span to truly savour the experience in a distraction-free environment.

The moment I entered the restaurant, I was greeted by a pleasant looking woman and cordially directed to my seat. At my seat, I began browsing the menu, and found a wide selection of food and drink choices.

From appetizers such as nachos, to pastas, pizza, risottos and seafood, the menu seemed to have it all.

On this particular day I was very hungry, so I selected an entree lasagna and a main woodfire vegetarian pizza, along with some water. Of the items I selected, I can confidently state that not one of them was sub-par, and indeed the lasagna was above average in its texture and taste. It had the right amount of cheese and was one of the better parts of my day (I'd been having a rough day at work). I can only speculate about the other items on the menu.

Although it's true that the pizza wasn't the best I've tasted, there's a certain charm to the pizzas at Café Trevi that cannot be denied. The presentation of the dishes was impeccable, and certainly it was not a wasted investment as far as my stomach was concerned.

On my way out of the restaurant, I was able to chat to the manager, an older man who seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the whole idea of customer service, making sure to relay some pertinent advice on the best way to get to the post office. I left well-fed and satisfied, with no complaints other than the reality that the food was a tad on the oily side.

In 2001, the Australian Federal Government's migration programme brought in more than 40,000 fresh permanent residents. Around 6% of these were of Indian origin. The number of Indians permanently settling in Australia is on the rise, according to the Department of Immigration, and most of these new arrivals secure skilled work, usually in an information technology or business related field.

The first Indians to be brought to Australia were mainly Sikhs and Muslims from the Punjab region in north-western India. Between 1860 and 1901, more Indians arrived and worked as agricultural labourers, hawkers and domestic help. A number of Indians also worked in the gold fields. Migration from India was curtailed after the Australian Government introduced the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, but following India's hard-won independence from Britain in 1947, the number of Anglo-Indians and Indian-born British citizens immigrating to Australia increased.

1966 was the year that heralded a major change in the Australian Government's immigration policies, as it allowed non-European Indians to migrate to Australia. Sundar Sarma, a fresh graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at the time, received this news with much enthusiasm. "I came to Australia in 1970, despite the remnants of the 'White Australia' policy," he says.

Now an Australian citizen and a geophysicist enjoying early retirement, Sarma is one of the many who are of the view that life in Australia is much better than the Indian lifestyle. "The lifestyle here is easier and more comfortable," he says. "In India you might live a lavish lifestyle on your private residence, but as soon as you step out, the muck and chaos greets you."

Dual citizenship was recently passed by the Indian parliament, but Sarma says he is unlikely to take it. "Even though I consider myself two-thirds Indian and one-third Australian, dual citizenship isn't on my agenda at the moment. Having an Indian passport in addition to my Australian is really only necessary if I am a frequent visitor to India or I have business interests there. Having an Indian passport gets you favoured treatment. For me however, I don't need that."

"I've got nothing against Australia's migration policies," he says. "Australia's migration system is actually fairer than a lot of other countries, and the immigration people try and mix up the quota so they don't favour one particular country." Because India essentially paid for his education, Sarma will always retain a deep affinity for India. "Most of my relatives live there, and I think I've got an equal liking for both countries."

How does the second generation perceive India? Sarma's only son, Neal, was born in Perth and is an Australian citizen. He speaks an Indian language - Assamese - and it is one of the few links to his roots. Neal feels that others sometimes perceive him as being less Australian because of his skin colour. "Fitting in here might be a little tough," he says, "but it's much easier than adapting to Indian culture at this point in my life."

Sunaina Seth, a 15-year old studying at Wantirna Secondary College, is inclined to agree. Her family has lived in Melbourne, Australia for more than nine years. Over the course of their stay, they have travelled back to India five times. "My parents begin to miss India and its people after a while," she explains. "I don't think I relate better with either Indians or westerners, it just depends on the individual."

Seth was born in Jorhat, Assam but has spent the majority of her life down under. Needless to say, it has left an impression upon her. However, she maintains that she considers herself Indian. "Almost everything in my life, including where I was born, points towards India. I guess I can't ever let it go completely." Seth's grandmother runs a charity organisation that helps educate children in poor villages. "If I ever give back in a big way, I'd probably donate to an Indian charity, mainly because of my connection to the people there."

The 2001 census recorded 95, 460 India-born persons (also comprising of those with Anglo-Indian or English ancestry) in Australia, with New South Wales ranking in as the state with the most Indian residents. The same information also shows that of all India-born people aged 15 years and over, 67.1% held some sort of educational or occupational qualification, compared with 46.2 percent for all Australians.

Statistics can only go so far, yet in this instance it is clear that Australia has become an enticing new home for many, and multiculturalism is finally a part and parcel of today's society. In the eyes of the majority of the world, even taking into account the controversy surrounding the asylum seeker issue, Australia seems to have become generally known for its friendliness and willingness to coexist with different types of people. The future appears to lie in the "boundless plains to share" lyric of the national anthem, and how current Australians can follow up on that gem.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine ‘confederal’ forms of governance, where sovereign states unite in a fashion that legally supports them as masters of their own constitutional domain of powers, and in particular to evaluate the operation of the Articles of Confederation (1781-1789) and the Constitution of the Confederate States (1862-1865).

Confederalism is an institutional configuration that is alien to most economically advanced democracies in the world today. More common is the highly centralised unitary-state style federalism found in Australia, India and to a lesser extent the US. Perhaps only Switzerland retains some semblance of decentralization with its canton system, a system that is nevertheless more centralised than the Old Swiss Confederation that existed between 1291 and 1798.

Part of the reason for this diminished interest in confederalism is that The Federalist has informed the views of political scientists in the present day when it comes to the evaluating the utility of confederations; yet many of the basic assumptions put forward by the authors (especially Alexander Hamilton) against decentralised forms of governance should be considered in combination with the responses contained in the ‘Anti-Federalist Papers’ (authored by the likes of George Clinton, Patrick Henry and possibly Robert Yates). From the anti-Federalists we can see that, contrary to the polemic of The Federalist, confederal models are worth learning from and implementing in a variety of situations.

Historically, confederalism - despite admitted challenges - nevertheless allowed the 13 original colonies of the US to defeat Britain in the American Revolutionary War. The Articles under which the colonies united would have prevented a national government from infringing upon the authority of the states, while still providing for mutual defense against foreign enemies. Congress under the Articles was effectively dependent on the goodwill of the states due to the system of quota payments whereby Congress asked for funds and the states then provided the requested funds. As stated in section 8, the machinery of state – rather than national – governance was to be used to raise taxes.

And the Confederate Constitution, had it been allowed to operate, would probably have rectified some of the problems with centralised interpretations of the US Constitution. In the Confederate Constitution the ‘general welfare’ clause that has been a prime source of mischief in federal government power in the United States was eliminated (as well, it limited the commerce clause). The Southern constitution also constrained the federal government's ability to interfere with international trade by laying tariffs on imports. And in certain situations, it required that Congress raise a two-thirds majority to pass spending bills. Thus the Confederate Constitution, while superficially identical to the US Constitution, contains several important differences that make it a useful case study for scholars interested in investigating the veracity of claims made about confederacies.

Note: This is my own personal experience with this company, and not necessarily indicative of their general operations. You can choose to believe it or not believe it.I have not made a complaint to ACCC despite being entitled to act on their misleading and deceptive conduct because I don't think it's worth my time and the amounts of money involved are small.

I wanted my room and the hallway outside my room steam cleaned. I did a Google search and found CheapAsChips. After calling the number, the guy said it could be done for $66. They also advertise on the internet saying they can do 3 rooms for $66, so one room and a hallway seemed within that range.

When their man showed up, he asked me to help him carry his equipment into the house. I thought that was a bit unprofessional and rude, as I paid for a service not to help him. He also looked at the carpet and decided that it would have to be more expensive: $99 for a room and hallway. I replied that this was not what I had been quoted on the phone. He responded that the guy on the phone hadn't seen the state of the carpet which was apparently dirtier than normal.

Because I had already taken time out of my day to travel to my new rental house, and the guy had already showed up, I didn't want to reject him completely especially as I was moving in a few days into the new place. So I agreed if he could do one room for $70 that'd be fine.

However I am warning anyone else not to trust this company as they could have told me on the phone that their quote was not a genuine quote, but dependent on the state of the carpet. My carpet was probably only slightly more dirty than an average carpet (it was a bit old, that is true). I was not told about the quote being only indicative and not a genuine quote until the last minute. They should have informed me of all the details prior to me wasting time booking them.

And finally, the company's actual cleaning of the carpet was pretty average and a quick 10 minute job. It would've been nice for their man to vacuum the carpet before wetting it.

The main complaint I have is that some of the electronic items sold by Kogan.com.au are faulty or don't work well (e.g. poor video quality), and their after-sales support isn't great.

I bought a car dash camera from Kogan.com.au which has worked fine during the daytime (not very clear video quality at night). However sometimes the camera doesn't record anything at all except for audio. See for yourself. In addition, I've bought many other electronic items from that website (mostly spy technology) that turned out to be duds. In one case the item arrived damaged and I had to argue to get my money back and even had to email the boss at Kogan himself - Ruslan Kogan.

I only got the refund because I copied Kogan himself in my complaint email as I had met him previously for a coffee while soliciting donations for Liberty Australia.